About the stats, are they any good to all chars? I mean, their not-main stats.

I guess stats do this:

Strength: more damage, good for warriors and any melee-character
Dexterity: better chance of succeeding when stealing, disarming traps; better shooting with sling and bow (more accuracy? more damage? or both? does it also affect melee attacks, like THAC0?)
Intelligence: Only to cast higher wiz spells?
Wisdom: Only good for clerics, to cast higher level spells?

thnx!

PD: i'm aware that this game was originally written over 20 years ago - i'm not bitching about how simple some features are, but asking because i'm really curious about it

Dexterity directly affects stealing and disarming traps, though not nearly as much as being a thief (128 point bonus to S/D) or a Barbarian, Illusionist, or Ranger (64 point bonus to S/D).
In addition, the higher your Dexterity the less likely you are to have your melee attacks miss (any weapon type).

Intelligence and Wisdom determines maximum mana for wizard and cleric spells respectively, thereby also determining which spells you can cast. Intelligence also affects the amount of damage caused by a wizard's Mentar and Dag Mentar spells.

In researching this, I noticed that Alchemists do not have enhanced Steal/Disarm Traps ability (in either the original Apple II version or this Mac version), contrary to what the manual says. As such, they seem to be half-intelligence-mana Wizards with no benefit. I don't know if this was a bug that was fixed in other ports, or what ...

one more question: my warrior has an exotic weapon and a +4 sword... which one is better? exotics are supposed to be the best in latter game, but are they the best against any monster? or only against certain monsters, like the ones behind the snake? (all my characters are using the digged out exotics).

The higher the letter, the better it is. Exotics are the best weapons and armour, and you can't beat the price! Still, +4 Bows are better for those that can use them because of the obvious shooting advantage.

The manual seems to say that Druids' magic points are based on the higher of their Intelligence and Wisdom ("greater of the two halfs").

I created a Druid with 25 Int and 5 Wis. He, if I am reading the display correctly has a maximum of 2 magic points. He does, however seem to be able to exceed the maximum as I believe he had, at one point, 12/2 magic points.

Would someone with a better understanding of the game please clarify how this is supposed to work?

I certainly didn't remember what the deal was with Druids, but I did some research (read through original Apple II Ultima III code disassembly). Ultima III 2.0 indeed displays Druid maximum magic points incorrectly.

Druids have a maximum magic points of half their intelligence or half their wisdom, whichever is higher. If their current magic points are lower than both of those values, they'll go up 2 points when every other class goes up by just one. If a Druid's current magic points are more than twice that of one of those abilities, but less than twice of the other, the points will regain at the same speed as other classes.

So, the display for druid maximum magic points is screwed up in Ultima III 2.0, but the actual maximum (and regain rate) are working as intended. I'll fix the display issue in the next release.

Thank you for the clarification. I am glad I was able to inadvertently contribute to testing.

Thank you for all the effort put into this. The first CRPG I played was Wasteland (on C64) and it was advertised as "in the style of Ultima." I never did play the Ultima series, so it is fun to be able to go back and see them. The graphics are crisp, but still in the old style. I am impressed with the work you have done.

beastie wrote:
Druids have a maximum magic points of half their intelligence or half their wisdom, whichever is higher. If their current magic points are lower than both of those values, they'll go up 2 points when every other class goes up by just one. If a Druid's current magic points are more than twice that of one of those abilities, but less than twice of the other, the points will regain at the same speed as other classes.

Leon

I thought I was losing my mind! Is this how it's SUPPOSED to work, though (curr MP > lowest stat *2 = lower MP refresh rate)?? I picked a Druid because I thought his MP would ALWAYS refresh at double-speed.